On June 15th, thousands of citizens from Barcelona gathered outside the parliament of Catalunya. They were protesting against austerity measures that were to be discussed that same day. These measures included cut-backs on education and health care. The citizens of Barcelona defined themselves ‘indignados’, because of the fact that the banks responsible for the crisis benefited from hundreds of billions of euros in public credits while public services and citizens themselves were made to pay.

On the morning of June 16th, the front pages of Spanish newspapers all brought the story of a fringe of protesters who had become violent. The story did not match up with the facts documented by the people on the spot. Amateur footage shows police attacking protesters and firing warning shots to disperse the crowd. It also shows a group of the supposedly violent protesters covering their faces and being escorted away by the police. Judging from their weaponry, these persons were likely to have been infiltrators from the Spanish national police. Videos posted on YouTube documenting the infiltration were later blacked out. The man who posted them received a letter from the video site stating that the footage violated the privacy of the infiltrating officers.